Your Car is Next On The Hackers List

One of the many topics we discuss here at the Mobility Digest water fountain is cyber security and where my skill and expertise is making cars run really fast, some of the guys here are more worried about if their car will run at all. At first I thought why would they and that Target and highly visible targets like that will only be targeted by hackers but maybe I’m wrong. According to our own security specialist Herg, there is a new evolving threat to our cars! Two Spanish researchers are getting ready to demonstrate next month at the Black Hat Asia that your car can be compromised for less than $20 bucks with off the shelf “untraceable parts” that can take over windows, lights, and depending on model brakes and steering. The hacking tool bypasses the cars security  Controller Area Network aka CAN. All it takes is 4 wires and this evil little gizmo can allow hackers to screw with your car by injecting malicious code into your car that can happen the next time you  fire up your car or even in a year from the original hack. The good news is that any wireless attack will be limited to someone within bluetooth range. So if your car starts acting up look around for some asshats laughing hysterically somewhere close by.

So should we be worried about this new threat?  Apparently it is possible but the implementation of this hack seems to hard to deploy and really has no value to the hacker other than a few laughs. US Senator Edward Markey to asking car manufacturers to explain how they secure their vehicles against cyber attacks if in fact they are doing it at all. There always seems to be no shortage of a congressman to get involved with some issue and blow it all out of proportion. So relax for now. Congress has got it all under control and the media is all over reporting the threat to further motivate the hackers to take over our cars!

Thanks Herg!

[source: Naked Security]